Seriously, Olympian Jordan Playing Just For The Fun Of It

July 02, 1992|By ALAN GREENBERG; Courant Sports Columnist

PORTLAND, Ore. — Unlike his more corporate-conscious, clean-shaven self, the man is growing a grungy goatee and playing 36 holes of golf a day. At night, he plays a little basketball with his friends, clowning with the opponent whenever possible. Nothing too strenuous. Nothing too serious.

Michael Jordan is on vacation.

"This is a relaxed attitude," Jordan said, fingering his scraggly growth. "I don't have to get up and shave. I don't have to do nothing. This is fun week. I'm not going to take this seriously."

Others are. While The Dream Team crushes ridiculously overmatched opponents, regardless of injuries (John Stockton, Larry Bird, Clyde Drexler), regardless of who's hot and who's not, the other teams entered in this Tournament of the Americas look enviously -- or askance -- at The Dream Team's training methods. Brazil, Puerto Rico and the rest are here to play basketball -- only basketball.

Marcel Souza, 37, is one of the stars of Brazil's national team, which has consistently been the No. 2 team in the Western Hemisphere. Souza and Oscar Schmidt, Brazil's other star, besides having great jump shots and delightful senses of humor, are unabashed admirers of the NBA players. Schmidt, for instance, has spent almost half of every interview session asking if someone will help him get Larry Bird's autograph. Be assured, he is not kidding.

Souza, after sinking the three-pointer that beat Mexico, couldn't wait to talk to the U.S. media about his new Air Jordans, which he had just bought at a discount store.

"At my hotel, they are $130 Souza said. "I got them for $68.70. I make great deal."

From his standpoint, Souza doesn't think the way the U.S. team is approaching these games is such a great deal. He knows The Dream Team isn't busting its butt to win, because it doesn't have to. Souza wants the United States to give an all-out effort against Brazil. After all, he reasons, how can you measure yourself against the best if they don't try their best?

"I am not seeing them play their best, they are hiding their

game," Souza said. "[They have] players playing golf. Players with suntans. What did they come here for? They came to play basketball.

"I don't want to provoke anybody. I don't have the right ... I hope they get mad. If we get beat by 100-point difference, we just want to see their best."

After the United States mauled Panama (112-52) Tuesday night, someone told Jordan what Souza said. But they took Souza's remarks out of context, only conveying to Jordan what Souza said about U.S. players coming here to get suntans and play golf.

Understandably, Jordan was miffed.

"So what?" Jordan said. "Until they beat us, we can do whatever we want."

For Jordan, that means playing just enough hard defense to terrify the opponent's top scorer. In the Cuba and Canada games, he left the offensive theatrics to his teammates.

But Tuesday night against Panama, with Stockton out for the rest of this tournament with a fracture in his lower right leg, Jordan became the backup point guard. In 17 minutes, he scored 15 points (5 of 5 from the field, four of them three-pointers).

The three-point line is 20 feet, 6 inches from the basket in international basketball, 9 inches farther than the NCAA line and about 3 feet closer than the NBA line, which ranges from 22 feet at the baseline to 23-9 at the top of the key.

"What is it [the international line], 15 feet?" Jordan said, jokingly. "It's like free throws for some of us."

"I'd like you to meet Michael Jordan," Magic Johnson shouted to the media as he walked by Jordan's table at the end of an interview session, "the greatest backup point guard in the world."

Jordan smiled. In terms of individual accomplishment, Jordan, like his teammates, comes here with nothing to prove. On a team where who starts and who comes off the bench is meaningless, Jordan is perfectly happy coming off the bench, something he hasn't done since high school, when he was cut from the team.

After living NBA life in a fishbowl, Jordan is thrilled to sit back and claim only a share of the spotlight. He is also quite happy with coach Chuck Daly's laid-back approach. If not for that, Jordan said, he wouldn't be here.

"My concern [when he was deciding whether to join the team] was how much relaxation I can get," said Jordan, who won a gold medal on the 1984 U.S. Olympic team. "We practiced two times a day in 1984. If it was like that [this time], I definitely wouldn't be playing. But Chuck said we could bring our clubs, play golf during the day and basketball at night. He's been very relaxed, very understanding about what we have to deal with. I can only imagine what it would be like to play for him [in the NBA]. I think it would be a lot of fun."

The 6-foot-6 Jordan had a lot of fun against Panama. He purposely picked on Panama's point guard, a head shorter, following him all over the court, especially during stoppages in play, standing next to him and grinning down at him like a shark contemplating his next meal. Somewhat nervously, the Panamian grinned back.

"I cut a deal with him," Jordan explained. "I said, `I won't harass you if you don't take me [drive] to the basket. Then he took me to the basket once, and I said, `That's not fair. If you do that, I'm going to have to take you to the basket.' "

And he did, just once. The rest of the time, Jordan was content

to swish threes.

"I can laugh and I can joke [on the court], but I'm serious," Jordan said. "If we get to the point where we have to take the smiles away from our game to get serious, we'll do it. When we get better competition [at the Olympics], I think it'll be a better focus."